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Recent wines purchased on CellarTracker

Recent Tasting Notes on CellarTracker

Accolades

“This is good news for Massachusetts wine enthusiasts, who will now be able to purchase wines they currently don’t have access to,” said Robert Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine. “This is also good news for Massachusetts in general since it will mean new revenues.”

"Robert P. Dwyer of Wellesley, who blogs about wine at thewww.wellesleywinepress.com, calls the state’s liquor laws bizarre and favors a wider availability of wine. For consumers, it would be more convenient to be able to buy wine at a supermarket while shopping for food, he said."

“You have this strange exclusion of wine, which in Europe is considered a grocery item,” said Mr. Dwyer. “Here it’s considered the demon rum.”

"trying to predict the annual Wine of the Year is a popular parlor game among enophiles. This year, blogger Wellesley Wine Press held a contest, with New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Co. awarding a prize of a Kindle Fire e-reader to the first commenter to correctly guess this year's top wine before it was announced. Unfiltered was impressed with the number of Top 10 wines prognosticated by Wellesley's readers. "Senelwine" guessed Château de St.-Cosme Gigondas 2009, our No. 10 wine, "Mike M" guessed Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional Douro 2008, our No. 7 wine, "James Z" guessed Baer Ursa Columbia Valley 2008, our No. 6 wine, and "RichardPF" nailed it, winning the Kindle, and the respect of his wine-loving peers. Looks like Wellesley's readers know their wine."

The Chicago Tribune's Bill Daley mentioned the site in Rosé: A wine for more seasons. I said "For me, they're like pumpkin spice coffee drinks: best enjoyed early in the season". Bill alsogave the site a shout-out for a piece the Capitol Case Clubcontributed about restaurant wine service. I thought it was a great example of how print wine writers can effectively engage wine bloggers.

The Boston Globe's website has been linking to my recent entries as part of their expanded local coverage includingWellesley. I truly appreciate that as it has driven a lot of local traffic to this site.

It was really nice of Thomas Matthews, Executive Editor of Wine Spectator to leave a comment and then check back and answer some questions I had. Awesome guy! Check it out here. And here.

Thanks to The Boston Globe for including The Wellesley Wine Press in their list of local blogs in the Food & Drink section. Check it out here.

The Wellesley Wine Press was just added tohttp://wine.alltop.com. Alltop is an interesting topical take on sorting through the best sites on the Internet- check it out and see which sites are listed for topics you're most interested in.

Friday, January 30, 2015

It has been a long time coming, but as you may have noticed some out of state wineries are now able to ship to Massachusetts!

Some spring release mailers have included a special shout out saying they'll be able to ship here. What it really means for me is cheaper shipping and fewer hassles.

I'm looking forward to being able to order directly from my favorite producers in a recurring manner to develop a persistent relationship with them. Sometimes when I was on the fence about reordering from a pricey producer I'd decide against it because of shipping costs and the hassle of shipping to a neighboring state.

I'm also entertaining joining some moderately priced winery clubs that I hadn't considered before. And possibly taking advantage of specials wineries offer from time to time. Wineries don't like to compete with retailers who carry their wine on price but you'll sometimes catch deals on their mailing list that will now make more sense than they used to.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can out of state *retailers* ship to Massachusetts now?

A: Not legally. The provision passed in 2014 only allows out of state *wineries* to apply for a permit.

Q: A winery I know ships to Massachusetts isn't listed. Why would that be?

A: In the past, some wineries may have found creative ways to ship to Massachusetts. They should now go through the process of getting a permit because it's the right thing to do and will likely lead to lower shipping costs for them and you.

Q: If I know a winery was recently approved but isn't listed what should I do?A: Leave a comment below if you have official communication from them. They were probably approved after this list was compiled.

Q: I'd like to encourage a winery to obtain a permit, what should I do?

A: Contact them and tell them you'd buy from them if they get a permit. The permits aren't cheap, wineries need one for each state they ship to, and small wineries need to know they have enough demand for it to make sense.

Q: I thought FedEx and UPS weren't going to be able to deliver in MA because each truck needs a permit. What happened with that?A:FedEx flattened that issue.

Q: What does it take for a winery to get a permit?

A: Massachusetts is now similar to many other states that allow winery direct shipment. Here's a post from ShipCompliant on what's needed.

Q: Where did you get this list?A: From the Massachusetts ABCC. I took their list of approved entities and manually mapped it to winery websites. In some cases there was ambiguity (is Oakville Hill Cellars really Dalla Valle?). In others a single corporate entity has a bunch of permits (Diageo, Jackson, etc). But hopefully the format presented here is user friendly. Let me know if you spot any mistakes.

Here is a list of wineries approved to ship to Massachusetts as of January 30th, 2015:

If you've received official communication from a winery that they've been approved for direct shipment to Massachusetts and they're not on this list feel free to leave a comment below and I'll add them to the list.

If you're a winery and you've recently been approved leave a comment or drop me an email and I'll add you to the list.

I'll reach out to the ABCC again in the next couple months for an update.

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak in Boston is offering a five-course dinner featuring the wines of Opus One on Thursday February 5th at 6:30 pm.

Del Frisco's is fantastic dining experiernce (review) and Opus One produces Bordeaux blends at the very highest level in Napa Valley.

I visited Opus One in 2010. Opus One was founded as a collaboration between Baron Phillipe de Rothschild and the Robert Mondavi family. The wines remain strong today thanks to the leadership of winemaker Michael Silacci. It was on this visit that I got a sense, for the first time, of the broad range of responsibilties a winemaker has. At least at Opus One - he calls the shots and sets the tone for the entire operation.

Opus One winemaker Michael Silacci in the Opus One vineyards

The winery is without a doubt a must-see destination. There's a sense of upscale tranquility that surrounds every bit of the place. The drive up, the architecture, the serenity of it, the cellars, the tasting rooms. Truly amazing.

Opus One winery, designed by architect Scott Johnson of Johnson, Fain & Pereira

Opus One produces around 25,000 cases of their flagship wine that sells for around $250 a bottle. At the gravity-fed winery each berry is sorted and analyzed with digital photography to ensure consistent quality. Some wineries rent these. Opus One owns theirs.

If you're not familiar with Total Wine, their stores are huge with tons of wines at all price points. Rather than having sections for regions or varieties they have entire grocery store-sized aisles devoted to, for example, domestic Pinot Noir.

Their entry here is notable for its potential to change the landscape of the Massachusetts wine industry. Once dominated by dusty-bottled old package stores, I think we're seeing a shift in two directions: High volume retailers and specialty boutique retailers.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Yesterday I posted about Wine Spectator's Grand Tour events coming up in 2015 in Chicago, Las Vegas and Dallas. I immediately started thinking about which of the locations would be most convenient to attend. If the idea of flying in to a city just to attend a wine tasting sounds crazy and expensive bear with me for a moment. It might be easier and more affordable than you think.

Why?

First, the reason I'd be willing to fly for one of these tastings is because they're so good. Yes, $225 per person is a lot of money for a wine tasting. But the quality of wine poured at these events and the editorial sort Wine Spectator applies when selecting the wineries pouring make these events special.

It is truly an embarrassment of riches and if you quickly want to develop a relatable frame of reference for what some of the world's benchmark wines taste like I've not seen a better way to do it.

How?

So how can we make it happen? How much would it cost?

Let's take the Dallas event as an example and suppose we live in Boston.

$250 per person round-trip airfare

$200/nt hotel

$100 rental car/ground transportation

$225 event ticket

$100 per person meals

$50 airport parking

Total: $925

If we did it as a couple, airfare and meal costs would go up a bit but there would be some shared expenses. Call it $1,500 all-in for a party of 2?

Okay - that's a fairly good chunk of change.

But here's how I'd play it, using credit card signup bonuses to make the trip more affordable and more pleasant.

Three Credit Cards

First, airfare. I'd check for the best paid fares out of Boston to get a feel for the going rates for direct flights at good times. Then, I'd check for saver level award availability for those flights. If award availability looked good at flight times that worked for me use AA miles to book the flight. Currently I see 25K AA miles round-trip in Economy or 50K AA miles per person round-trip in First.

50K AA miles is enough for round-trip
in First Class at saver levels

Since I've got plenty of AA miles already I'd probably go for a couple First Class tickets at saver levels if my wife can join. If not I'd just go for Economy. If I needed some AA miles I'd sign up for the Citi AAdvantage Platinum MasterCard with a 50K signup bonus after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months. The $95 annual fee is waived the first year. If I wanted to fly both me and my wife in First and I didn't have enough miles I'd sign her up for a card as well.

45K Chase Ultimte Rewards would
cover hotel, event tickets and more

The next card I'd go for is the Chase Sapphire Preferred. I think this is the best all around travel credit card. It comes with a 40K point signup bonus plus an additional 5K bonus after adding an authorized user. The best thing about the card is its flexibility. You can cash out the points at a penny a piece (so $400 to spend on whatever you want), or book for travel at 1.2 cents a piece through their portal, or (most optimally) transfer the points 1:1 to travel partners like United and Hyatt. The event is at a Hyatt. It costs just $159/nt which isn't bad in itself but if you use Hyatt points it's just 8,000 points per night. Transfer 8,000 of your 40,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Hyatt and your hotel room is paid for.

After that you'd still have Chase Ultimate Rewards points remaining. If you really wanted to do this whole thing "for free" you could use those points for the event admission, meals or parking. But since that's only a penny a point I'd probably pay for them out of pocket and save my valuable Ultimate Rewards points or something higher leverage like premium cabin international flights.

40K Barclay points are easy to redeem towards travel
and 2+% cashback every is good for ongoing spend

A third card I'd get, depending on my current point balances and the flights available to me, is the Barclay Arrival+. It also comes with a 40K point signup bonus but the points work differently than with Chase. To use Barclay Arrival points you just charge travel (air, hotel, rental car) to your card and erase the charges at a rate of a penny a point. There's no award availability you need to search for and no loyalty programs to figure out. You just charge travel and erase it, up to $400 to start. The card is also nice for ongoing spend because it pays 2% on all purchases when the points are redeemed towards travel.

Bottom Line

So how much would the event cost if we signed up for these three cards and used the points towards the trip?

$225 event ticket (out of pocket or use cashback from Chase Sapphire Preferred)

$100 per person meals (you kind of have to eat no matter where you are, and the event serves food, but use Chase Sapphire cashback if you want)

$50 airport parking (I'd pay out of pocket with the Chase Sapphire and earn 2X on this)

Total: $925 (nearly FREE?)

So there you have it. Three credit card signups and a little minimum spend and you're on your way to an amazing time at the event for hardly any out of pocket expense.

I hope this was a helpful diversion from straight wine content. I think points & miles can be a great way to make trips to wine events and wine regions more attainable. If you're interested in discussing points, miles & cashback further drop me an email (wellesleywinepress@gmail.com)or ping me on Twitter (@RobertDwyer).

Thursday, January 15, 2015

These stand-up/walk around tastings provide an outstanding opportunity to taste benchmark wines and meet winemakers and winery owners. Wine Spectator editors attend, a light buffet is provided and you get a souvenir Riedel glass.

If you're looking to efficiently and enjoyably build up a frame of reference for some of the world's great wines, these Spectator events are the best I've found. If you're a wine enthusiast it's hard to imagine not feeling like a kid in a candy store. And if you just like the taste of wine there's a ton of really good stuff to enjoy.

Las Vegas is a familiar venue for the Grand Tour - here's a review of the 2012 event.

I attended the Chicago event in 2013 and had a great time. Here's a review of that one.

I also attended the 2011 event in Boston. Please come back to Boston next year Grand Tour!

Dallas is an intriuging location to me. Like Chicago it's conveniently served by major airlines so it should be relatively easy for people from all over the country to get to.

I'll ping a few of my wine pals on Twitter right now to see if we can finally converge on one of these and meet in real life for the first time after comparing notes over the years...

Saturday, January 10, 2015

New York based online retailer Liquid Discount is offering two discount codes for your consideration:

10% off $199+ orders WWP10

15% off $299+ orders WWP15

Combined with reasonable shipping costs (especially when you ship a round 12 bottle case) and quick fulfillment, it's worth having a look through their inventory to see if you can find great values in the categories interesting to you.

A category that's had my attention lately is 2012 Oregon Pinot Noir. I'm normally more of a California guy when it comes to Pinot Noir but the '12 Pinot Noir vintage was disappointing in California and Oregon knocked it out of the park. The 2012 Oregons I've tasted avoid the things I usually don't like about Oregon Pinot Noir: Green stemmy notes and twangy flavor profiles. Instead the better ones I've tasted are plush and offer brilliant, focused, effortless power.

Spain continues to deliver for me, and it's always worth checking whether you might be able to catch Alto Moncayo or Clio at a great price with a coupon code like this. The 2012 Clio is $39.95 so after 15% off that's $33.95. It always feels like I'm cheating the wine game when I enjoy a bottle of Clio south of $35. So good. Every time.

It's always good to have some daily drinkers to round things out, and Spain excels here. Juan Gil at $13.95 is always terrific (you'd be amazed how such an affordable wine gets better and better after a night or three on the counter under stopper, especially in this 2012). I've never had this 94 point (WA) $13.95 wine but I like the metrics (even if Parker's scores are a bit inflated). And this E-2 is a juicy crowd pleaser if there ever was one.

If you were interested in trying #6 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 list they've got half and full bottles of the 2010 Castello di Ama Chianti Classico San Lorenzo Gran Selezione. I haven't cracked a bottle of this yet but I'm looking forward to trying it.

So that's what jumps out at me. If you're in the Westchester County area check out their store front in the Ridge Hill Mall.